Asparagus medeoloides (L.f.) Thunb.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘Myrsiphyllum asparagoides, though hitherto never figured in this country, was introduced into England so early as 1702, by the Duchess of Beaufort.  Although long since almost gone out of cultivation, we have no hesitation in calling attention to it, as one of the most elegant greenhouse climbers that can well be found; nothing, indeed, can exceed the feathery lightness of the plant when well grown and flowered; and whether on account of its graceful habit, its flowering in mid-winter, the uniformity of its bright-green foliage, and perfume of its pearly flowers, it is one of the plants best suited for table decoration and ornamentation generally hitherto introduced.  It is a native of various parts of the Cape of Good Hope colony, whence the plants here figured were sent by Mr. Cooper, and contributed by our friend W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., F.R.S.  It flowered at Kew from January to March.  The only other described species, M. angustifolia, appears to me not even to rank as a variety, the leaves being most variable on the same specimen.’  [BM t.5584/1866].

History at Camden Park

Listed only in the 1857 catalogue [T.669/1857].

Notes